A Big Misunderstanding
by Kkarrie
Summary: You never know who you'll bump into when you're grocery shopping.


Winnie Guster wouldn't consider herself to be a woman of the world. She would be the first to admit that she didn't know everything about all there was. But she did know a little bit about prison... well, she knew about holding cells. She didn't like to dwell on the Christmas that Old Man Fuller had died. It had exposed some terrible things about her neighbors. But there was one thing that she did dwell on about that night in the holding cell. There had been another woman in the cell with her. At first Winnie had been suspicious; the woman was probably a hardened criminal, in on charges that would lead to the death penalty. But after talking with her for a few moments, Winnie realized that this woman was just like her, a victim of a misunderstanding. Sure, the poor girl had her own family problems, but no family was perfect.****

The woman Winnie talked to was funny, smart, beautiful and above all, single. She was just the kind of girl that Burton needed. Sometimes Winnie blamed herself for his perpetual singleness, maybe they had coddled him too much growing up. Most of the time she blamed Shawn for keeping Burton away from all the right kinds of women. If only Winnie had gotten that nice blonde lady's number in the holding cell. If only she could have remembered her name! She was sure Burton was sick and tired of hearing about the woman from the holding cell. She'd only mentioned her a dozen times over that Christmas.****

This is what Winnie had been thinking about as she pushed the shopping cart through the grocery store one Tuesday morning. Bill was out of town and Burton had gladly agreed to help her shop. She didn't really need the help lifting everything, but the company was nice. ****

She had sent Burton to frozen foods to pick up a couple of guilty pleasure snacks that she and Bill enjoyed on Saturday nights. That was when she crashed her shopping cart into a shopper coming towards her.****

**"**Oh my gosh!" The woman exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, I just can't seem to keep focused today." She flashed Winnie a grin. "Wait a second," the woman frowned, her brows knitting together. "I know you, don't I?"****

Winnie couldn't believe what she was seeing, it was the woman from the holding cell. "Winnie Guster," she hurriedly held out a hand. "We shared a holding cell together Christmas of '07." She paused. "That sounds really odd doesn't it?"****

The woman laughed, her laugh was jingly and bright. "Oh don't worry about it, I've seen my fair share of holding cells in the past year." She raised her eyebrows, realizing what she said. "I mean, not that I'm-"****

**"**I understand," Winnie assured her.****

The woman smiled. "Marlowe Vicellio," she held out a hand.****

**"**Winnie Guster," Winnie shook the outstretched hand. "It is so odd to see you here, I was just thinking about that Christmas. You know my son Burton thinks I'm making up the nice, beautiful woman who talked to me while I was wrongly accused."****

Marlowe smiled. "That is so kind of you. I'm sure your son is a nice young man."****

**"**Oh, he is," Winnie hoped she'd be able to prove it when Burton got back from the freezer. "You should meet him, he's around here someplace." She glanced over to the freezer section.****

Marlowe looked like she wanted to protest and then just smiled politely. "I have just a couple things on my list left, it was so nice to run into you again." She started to steer her cart to go around Winnie.****

**"**Mom, here's the dinners you wanted, can you believe that they only had one of the lasagnas left?" Gus came up with his hands full of frozen entrees. "Did you pick up my Count Chocula?" He glanced in his mother's cart.****

**"**Burton!" Winnie grabbed her son's arm. "Never mind about the cereal. Do you remember the woman I met when I was wrongly imprisoned for Mr. Fuller's murder? I told you about her, right?"****

**"**The perfect woman that doesn't exist?" Gus still hadn't looked up from the cart. He couldn't see any cereal at all. He'd have to stop by aisle seven again to grab some.****

Winnie elbowed him in the ribs and gave Marlowe a beaming smile. "Burton, this is Marlowe."****

Gus dropped the stack of dinners on the floor. "Marlowe?"****

Marlowe stared back at him in shock. "Gus?"****

Winnie looked between her son and Marlowe. "You two know each other?"****

Before Gus or Marlowe could answer her, a new person joined their group.****

**"**Hey, baby, they didn't have any oranges, so I picked up some grapefruit." Lassiter dropped the bag of yellow produce in their cart, slipping an arm around Marlowe's waist. "We'll just have to stay healthy other ways." He nuzzled her neck, squeezing her closer.****

**"**Detective Lassiter!" Winnie gasped at the blatant display of affection.****

Lassiter's head snapped up. "Mrs. Guster?"****

**"**Mom, this is Marlowe Viccellio, Detective Lassiter's fiance." Now that the perfect woman his mom had been yammering about for four years turned out to be the not perfect woman, Gus actually found this entire situation to be hilarious.****

**"**What in the name of Sweet Lady Justice are you doing here, Guster?" Lassiter scowled, his arm still around Marlowe's waist.****

**"**Grocery shopping," Gus retorted. "Now excuse me I have some Count Chocula to grab." He headed off for aisle seven.****

Winnie gave the couple a polite smile and hurried off after her son. "Burton, I'm sure that this relationship is just a phase!" She wasn't quite out of earshot when she called that out.****

Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Phase my ass," he growled, his arm tightening protectively.****

Marlowe placed a hand on his chest. "Don't worry, lover. It's a phase I never plan to outgrow." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.


End file.
